Whipping Girl
This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2022) |
OCLC 81252738 | |
Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity is a 2007 book by the
Terminology
The book extensively discusses
Serano coins the term effemimania (from effeminacy) to describe the societal obsession with male and trans expressions of femininity—an obsession that she claims is rooted in transmisogyny.
Themes
In a collection of essays, Serano seeks to deconstruct Western societal narratives about trans women, including those of academia, medicine, and the media. She frequently cites her personal experiences as a lesbian trans woman, which differ from the predominant narrative of the heterosexual trans woman.[citation needed]
Serano argues that "oppositional sexism" is a driving force behind
Serano uses the term
In her book, Serano argued that cisgender people, lacking discomfort with their gender assigned at birth, nor thinking of themselves as or wishing they could become a different gender,
Intrinsic inclinations model
Serano's argument of intrinsic inclinations was discussed in great detail in the book, taking the entirety of the sixth chapter, with much of the rest of the book relying on an understanding of this model in order to discuss the presence and place of trans women in feminism. The intrinsic inclinations model is an idea of gender and how there came to be the variation that exists amongst people in modern society. The idea that there are both biological and social factors at play in the variation that occurs in sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression is at the core of the intrinsic inclinations model, and it is how Serano attempts to explain both the typical and atypical forms of each of the three traits. This model is built upon four basic tenets.
The first tenet of this model, the model's core that everything that follows is built upon, is the fact that "subconscious sex, gender expression, and sexual orientation represent separate gender inclinations that are determined largely independent of one another."[7] The assumption that these three things are determined individually allows for the natural variation that exists amongst people to be explained easily, as it is now simply a matter of explaining individual traits rather than trying to explain things for a society as a whole, and it allows this model to be able to explain exceptions to typical forms of gender expression without crushing the entire model.
The second tenet of the model, and where the model gets its name, is the assumption that "these gender inclinations are, to some extent, intrinsic to our persons ... and generally remain intact despite societal influences and conscious attempts by individuals to purge, repress, or ignore them."[7] Serano argues that it is because these traits are naturally occurring, the differences present in society simply represent the natural variation that is also found in numerous other species.
The third tenet simply states that since there has not been one single factor that has been determined to cause any of these gender inclinations, these traits have multiple factors that determine and make up them, and, as such, a range of possible outcomes should be accepted rather than
The fourth and final tenet of this model states that "each of these inclinations roughly correlates with physical sex, resulting in a
Background
In 2005, Serano's 36 page chapbook called On the Outside Looking In: A Trans Woman's Perspective on Feminism and the Exclusion of Trans Women from Lesbian and Women-only Spaces was published by Hot Tranny Action Press. It contains 4 essays. Updated versions of three of these (Bending Over Backwards: an Introduction to the Issue of Trans Woman-Inclusion, Skirt Chasers: Why the Media Depicts the Trans Revolution in Lipstick and Heels, and Hot Tranny Action Manifesto) are included in Whipping Girl.
In the introduction to Whipping Girl, Serano says that she chose the title 'to highlight the ways in which people who are feminine, whether they be female, male, and/or transgender, are almost universally demeaned compared with their masculine counterparts'.[9]
References
- ^ "Toward a Trans* Feminism". Boston Review. 5 Jul 2023. Retrieved 5 Jan 2024.
- ^ "Nonfiction review". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2012-09-17.
- ^ Foster, Julie (2007-06-17). "Transsexual finds sexism in feminism". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2012-09-17.
- ^ Talusan, Meredith (6 March 2016). "The Lasting Transgender Legacy Of Julia Serano's "Whipping Girl"". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
- ISBN 978-1580051545.
- ISBN 978-1580051545.
- ^ ISBN 978-1580051545.
- ISBN 978-1580051545.
- ^ Serano, Julia (2007). Whipping Girl. Avalon Group. p. 2.